Burger King's Restaurant Of Tomorrow

Super S
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Re: Burger King's Restaurant Of Tomorrow

Post by Super S »

Burger King seems to have a more rocky relationship with their franchise operators than other chains. I can't see many restaurants being remodeled to this concept. Burger King sometimes has difficulty getting them to remodel period. Something like this would lead to a lot of locations closing.
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Re: Burger King's Restaurant Of Tomorrow

Post by storewanderer »

Super S wrote: September 6th, 2020, 8:43 am Burger King seems to have a more rocky relationship with their franchise operators than other chains. I can't see many restaurants being remodeled to this concept. Burger King sometimes has difficulty getting them to remodel period. Something like this would lead to a lot of locations closing.
In Reno, NV back in the 00's, a "Burger King of the Future" was built. It is on Kietzke Lane. It had all kinds of new technology, an indoor playground, self service drinks, automated ketchup dispensers, new cooking methods (got rid of the microwaves), etc. Much better layout and space than a typical Burger King. It got a twin somewhere in FL. It opened to great fanfare. Ultimately it became just another Burger King.
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Re: Burger King's Restaurant Of Tomorrow

Post by BillyGr »

Knight wrote: September 6th, 2020, 7:33 am McDonald's started the trend of two or more drive thru lanes by adding an incomplete second drive thru only with the order kiosk. Existing locations have added third windows to the first drive thru lane for decorative and non-practical purposes.
Many of those McDonald's with a third (now most often unused) window came about when they were trying to provide better service.
The idea of the third window was to have someone taking the orders there, rather than via the speaker systems that often are difficult to hear and understand.

So, first window to take order, second to take payment, third to give out food. Worked fine when they actually used it, but it seems most locations didn't other than really busy times. Usually combining the order and pay functions at either the first (better, to give more space so several orders could be in progress at one time) or second (worse, since time was limited to get the order ready).

Then they slowly went back to putting in new (and maybe better) speakers for ordering, with the person taking the order being the same one that collects the money at the 2nd window.
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Re: Burger King's Restaurant Of Tomorrow

Post by Brian Lutz »

It seems like most new build or recently remodeled McDonald's restaurants now have the double ordering kiosks in the drive thru lanes. Where space permits most of these have separate lanes, but locations with less space might also have two kiosks in one lane (although in these cases it's rare to see more than one being used.) Newer Wendy's locations have been using a similar dual lane setup as well around here.

Chick-Fil-A also does dual drive-thru setups, but during busy times they rarely use the kiosks. Instead, they have employees equipped with tablets who go from car to car collecting orders (and who can also take card payments) after which they can just go straight to the pickup window. They may also have someone between the kiosks and the window who confirms the order in which cars enter the lane, and who hands receipts to customers paying with card. I assume cash transactions would still need to be handled at the window as usual though. In my limited experience with this setup it seems to be pretty efficient.
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Re: Burger King's Restaurant Of Tomorrow

Post by storewanderer »

Brian Lutz wrote: September 11th, 2020, 11:32 am In my limited experience with this setup it seems to be pretty efficient.
This is a very efficient set up as I have personally witnessed. It is actually unbelievable how efficient it is. It takes people (labor) to make it happen. Most of these fast food operators seem to do whatever they can to cut labor. I've heard some drive throughs actually "outsource" the order taking process. As in who is speaking to you via the speaker, is at some remote call center somewhere.
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Re: Burger King's Restaurant Of Tomorrow

Post by cjd »

I remember the 90s Mc Donald's in my area had the three windows. The second window rarely if ever was used that I can remember.

Since these restaurants have remodeled, and added two drive thru lanes/menu boards, they have removed the second window but have added a third out in the dining area. This way they can have cars pull up to the last window if they are waiting for something and not hold up the line. If the line was particualrly backed up I have seen them also have the food ready at the first pay window, so cars could get their food if it was ready and pull out of the line before reaching the second window.

Not sure if BK uses it, but there are also the numbered parking spots that they sometimes ask you to pull into and they bring the food out to the vehicle. My local DQ has also started doing this. That location particularly gets backed up because the window is on the right side of the building. Very short line between the road and the window, so cars are often backed up into the side of the road waiting in line.
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Re: Burger King's Restaurant Of Tomorrow

Post by cjd »

storewanderer wrote: September 6th, 2020, 10:58 am In Reno, NV back in the 00's, a "Burger King of the Future" was built. It is on Kietzke Lane. It had all kinds of new technology, an indoor playground, self service drinks, automated ketchup dispensers, new cooking methods (got rid of the microwaves), etc. Much better layout and space than a typical Burger King. It got a twin somewhere in FL. It opened to great fanfare. Ultimately it became just another Burger King.
Are indoor playgrounds uncommon with Burger Kings? One of the BKs in my area has this. I think it was built around 2005. I have actually never eaten there so I don't know what it's like inside. But can see the playground equipment through the tall windows and the roof in that area is higher. It was renovated a few years ago but still has the playground. All of the McDonald's play places in my area are long gone. Heard it was due to germs and difficulty of cleaning the play equipment. But I don't know for sure.
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Re: Burger King's Restaurant Of Tomorrow

Post by Super S »

cjd wrote: September 12th, 2020, 5:47 am
storewanderer wrote: September 6th, 2020, 10:58 am In Reno, NV back in the 00's, a "Burger King of the Future" was built. It is on Kietzke Lane. It had all kinds of new technology, an indoor playground, self service drinks, automated ketchup dispensers, new cooking methods (got rid of the microwaves), etc. Much better layout and space than a typical Burger King. It got a twin somewhere in FL. It opened to great fanfare. Ultimately it became just another Burger King.
Are indoor playgrounds uncommon with Burger Kings? One of the BKs in my area has this. I think it was built around 2005. I have actually never eaten there so I don't know what it's like inside. But can see the playground equipment through the tall windows and the roof in that area is higher. It was renovated a few years ago but still has the playground. All of the McDonald's play places in my area are long gone. Heard it was due to germs and difficulty of cleaning the play equipment. But I don't know for sure.
I know of only one newer Burger King which has an indoor playground. The outdoor ones have pretty much all been removed at this point. Come to think of it, many McDonald's have gotten rid of the outdoor ones in recent years as older restaurants have been rebuilt. They are not including indoor or outdoor playgrounds in the rebuilds.
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Re: Burger King's Restaurant Of Tomorrow

Post by storewanderer »

Super S wrote: September 12th, 2020, 8:18 am
I know of only one newer Burger King which has an indoor playground. The outdoor ones have pretty much all been removed at this point. Come to think of it, many McDonald's have gotten rid of the outdoor ones in recent years as older restaurants have been rebuilt. They are not including indoor or outdoor playgrounds in the rebuilds.
The "Burger King of the Future" in Reno has (had? I haven't been inside in years) an indoor playground and another Burger King built in Sparks, NV a few years after that also has (had?) an indoor playground. Since then a couple additional Burger Kings have been built in this area and those do not have any indoor playgrounds.

During the McDonalds remodels the past few years all of the outdoor playgrounds have been removed. Some of the indoor ones have been kept though. It is a franchisee by franchisee decision whether or not to keep or remove the indoor playground, at this point. It is difficult with the indoor ones as that is a lot of space dedicated to the indoor playground; you still have to heat, clean, and maintain that space even if you remove the equipment and just put tables there. Some of those indoor playgrounds do appear to draw customers in.
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Re: Burger King's Restaurant Of Tomorrow

Post by pseudo3d »

cjd wrote: September 12th, 2020, 5:47 am
storewanderer wrote: September 6th, 2020, 10:58 am In Reno, NV back in the 00's, a "Burger King of the Future" was built. It is on Kietzke Lane. It had all kinds of new technology, an indoor playground, self service drinks, automated ketchup dispensers, new cooking methods (got rid of the microwaves), etc. Much better layout and space than a typical Burger King. It got a twin somewhere in FL. It opened to great fanfare. Ultimately it became just another Burger King.
Are indoor playgrounds uncommon with Burger Kings? One of the BKs in my area has this. I think it was built around 2005. I have actually never eaten there so I don't know what it's like inside. But can see the playground equipment through the tall windows and the roof in that area is higher. It was renovated a few years ago but still has the playground. All of the McDonald's play places in my area are long gone. Heard it was due to germs and difficulty of cleaning the play equipment. But I don't know for sure.
There were a few indoor playground Burger King stores I know of in the central Texas but all of them have closed in the last five years or so except one which got remodeled (and I believe the playground was removed in the process). One of them closed fairly early on (possibly just two years after opening) and became a Whataburger but it doesn't use the indoor playground.
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